Texas Wesleyan’s counseling program extends mental health services beyond student body

The keys to effective therapy are clear to Amy Battles — asking the right next question, really listening and having a therapist bring the part of themselves that helps the client see themselves. She’s seen them in action as she earns her doctorate in marriage and family therapy at Texas Wesleyan University.

“If you listen to somebody talk long enough, you will hear their heart. They will tell you,” said Battles, who is 66 and began pursuing a counseling career after she retired from working as a records manager in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. “Now I really listen and hear.”

Battles works in the Texas Wesleyan University Community Counseling Center off of East Rosedale Street in east Fort Worth, where the center offers both long-term and short-term counseling to any Texas Wesleyan student who drops into the clinic. It also fills a need for mental health services for the surrounding community in the Polytechnic Heights area. 

Master’s and doctoral students work in the center, get their clinical hours needed for their license and learn through the supervised observation from their professors. For students, counseling is free. For community members, sessions are based on a sliding scale, from $10 to $50 per session based on reported family size and income. The majority of the people who the clinic sees are community members.

The center deals with issues related to depression, anxiety, stress, trauma and other mental health stressors. Students who have graduated from the master’s program have gone on to work in veterans affairs clinics, hospitals, starting their own practices or hospital administration. 

The graduate students earn their clinical hours by working at Texas Wesleyan’s counseling center. Faculty give feedback to the graduate students as they provide counseling, building rapport with the student and charting out ways that they can grow as a therapist.

“How might you feel a little bit more secure in the next session? Or how might you challenge yourself to work with this?” said Kathleen Wallace, the former clinical director of the counseling center. 

She said that faculty who observe come up with ways that the therapists-in-training can grow into their roles, and that’s what the therapists are giving the clients that they serve, too.

Many of the center’s clients are students, and Wallace said that they’re at a key part in molding their identity.

“How can we help you lean into who you want to be as an adult and really build your identity and your strengths?” said Wallace, relaying some of the questions that they ask. “How do we build some of those tools so that you apply to this problem and every problem moving forward.”

Battles sees therapy as a part of giving back — providing people with the tools to move forward, get unstuck and get to know themselves.

“You have the opportunity now to pour into this person’s life and fill whatever that hole is that has been in their life for however long it’s been there,” said Battles. “You have that opportunity to help them fill that up.”

That project isn’t limited to the individual, Battles said. It’s part of a group effort to build a community back up.

Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at [email protected].

The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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